A 15 Minute Free Write

I just heard a news broadcast about a guy in Wisconsin who died yesterday, after trying to drive his snowmobile over open water in a partially frozen river.  Death comes so suddenly.  He was probably having a blast with his friends one minute and the next minute he was going "uh-oh, the frickin' ice broke, or the machine did not go as far across the water as I thought it would, and now here I am under water".  The report said that he was pulled out but was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later.  Didn't sound like he ever regained consciousness.

What a waste.  Yeah, a lot of the things we do are deadly dangerous.  In fact, enough of the things we really need to do are deadly dangerous, that we don't really need to find extra dangerous things to do, do we?  Or do people (of a certain age range) feel...what?   Invulnerable to death?  So bored with safety?  Like something is missing?

Yes, I still hope to go skydiving someday, and I thought that day would be coming as my kids left the home, but now I have GRANDKIDS, and perhaps they will gain from my long term influence even more (assuming my own kids did gain some), so I should be even more careful now than I have been, to live as long as possible.

What do I do anymore that's dangerous anyway?  Over the years as a carpenter, I have been in many dangerous  circumstances (far more than most astronauts, since their every move is measured and rehearsed and studied, and mine have been more haphazard and rushed and simply done to get it done) but I am now, more often than not, the "ground guy".  I'll stay down and do all the cutting and the running, thank you very much, while the young punks climb over the roof and haul the sheeting and the bundles and hang out on the edges of disaster.  Been there, done that.

How much time do you have left?

So this poor guy, I didn't catch his age, has lost his snowmobile.  Perhaps his wife will get to make the remaining payments in his memory.

15 minutes are up.